The present invention is directed to bicycles that use electrically operated devices and, more particularly, to a wiring connector apparatus used to fix electrical wiring to a bicycle frame.
In recent years, it has become common practice to equip bicycles with multiple electric devices. Examples of such electric devices include electrically operated front and rear transmission shifting devices, switch-controlled shift control devices, a power supply, and one or more additional electrically operated control devices. The front and rear transmission shifting devices usually are mounted to intermediate and rear portions of a bicycle, respectively, the shift control devices usually are mounted at opposite ends of a handlebar, and the power supply and additional control devices usually are mounted on a down tube or a seat tube of the bicycle frame. Wiring connectors often are used to interconnect the various electric devices together at various locations along the bicycle frame. Such an arrangement is shown in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-040186. In that system, a wiring connector is attached to an end of wiring from a control device. The wiring connector includes three connectors for connecting wiring from the front and rear transmission shifting devices and from the shift control devices. The wiring connector is fixed to the underside of the bottom bracket (crank case) of the bicycle frame by means of bolt members that screw into the frame. However, such an arrangement requires screw holes to be specially formed in the frame. To avoid having to form such special structures on the frame, some installers fix the wiring connector to the frame using wire ties or other fixing structures. Unfortunately, it is difficult to stably fix the wiring connector to the frame using such fixing devices.